A path will open for individuals who own camper vans to rent out their vehicles through platforms. The cap on raw material purchases that soju manufacturers can buy directly from neutral spirit producers will also be doubled from the current limit.
On the 8th, the Fair Trade Commission said it had revised 22 regulations that have blocked competition in areas including daily life, manufacturing, food, and artificial intelligence (AI). The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has analyzed market structures every year and worked with each ministry to remove unnecessary regulations.
First, the volume of neutral spirits that soju manufacturers can purchase directly will increase from 30,000 drums a year to 40,000–60,000 drums. In Korea, neutral spirit transactions have in effect been handled by Daehan Spirits Sales, and manufacturers could only conduct direct transactions for limited volumes. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) explained, "If direct transactions expand, competition will emerge in the neutral spirits market and soju manufacturers will have more choices."
Entry for new comprehensive liquor wholesalers will also become easier. Until now, the government effectively tied licenses to regional consumption volumes, and few new wholesalers emerged. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said it will adjust license standards "to break market entrenchment."
Regulations on sharing camper vans will also be eased. Until now, registering as a rental car business required 50 vehicles and a garage, but going forward individuals will be able to legally rent out camper vans through platforms. Because it was hard to meet registration requirements, thousands of camper vans were left on the outskirts of cities and were cited as a cause of parking shortages. Going forward, individuals who own camper vans will be able to legally rent out vehicles through platforms, and consumers will be able to use camper vans at lower prices.
AI corporations will be able to use original data as is for training. Until now, if there was no consent from the data subject, faces and voices had to be blurred. The industry has raised concerns about increased expense and degraded technology. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said, "If it is judged that pseudonymization makes technology development difficult, use of original data will be allowed after review by the Personal Information Protection Commission."
Use of QR codes will be expanded on food and health functional food packaging. Because the text has been excessively small, causing consumer inconvenience, essential information will be printed larger and detailed information provided via QR code. For non-sale items intended for 1–2 servings, the problem of insufficient packaging space will also be reduced.
Standards for indicating the country of origin at bakeries will also be made more realistic. Given that product change cycles are short and ingredient compositions change frequently, many said it was hard for bakeries to comply with existing regulations. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) is preparing improvements to rationalize the country-of-origin labeling requirement.